This project will develop a Final TMDL report and Implementation Plan for the Bluff Creek Watershed. The main outcomes of this project are the development of a Final TMDL Report approved by MPCA and EPA and a Final Implementation Plan approved by MPCA.
Currently, over 235 miles of open ditch are under the jurisdiction of the Brown County Ditch Authority. A majority of Brown County public ditches drain into large, impaired rivers including the Minnesota River (Turbidity), Cottonwood River (Turbidity/Fecal Coliform), Little Cottonwood River (Turbidity/Fecal Coliform) and Watonwan River (Turbidity/Fecal Coliform). Thus far the Brown County Drainage Authority has been inventorying ditches as requested for repair by residents in the ditch system.
This project will work in cooperation with individual volunteers to perform grab samples and visual assessments of four waterbody sites in Brown County. The data collected will be an educational tool to inform the County’s citizens about water quality concerns. Using volunteers to collect the water quality samples and visual assessments will result in the volunteers taking personal pride and stewardship in clean water throughout the County.
Once thought to have an essentially inexhaustible groundwater supply, Minnesotans are now realizing our rates of use are regionally unsustainable. Recent advanced modeling by the MN DNR and Metropolitan Council of aquifer supplies, in conjunction with predicted demand, indicate the major metropolitan area aquifers are currently subject to extraction rates that exceed recharge. Simply stated, we are mining our groundwater.
The goal of this project is to use a science-based and participatory approach to understanding and promoting conservation practices in the agricultural community.
This project addresses the identified need for an Implementation Plan that provides an overall roadmap for the effort it will take to meet the Carnelian Marine St. Croix Multi-Lakes Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). An Implementation Plan will be developed, with involvement of the Project Partners and stakeholder groups, that sets forth prioritized strategies for attaining the TMDL and a method for tracking the progress of those efforts. The Implementation Plan will be restoration-focused, but will include protection-oriented information/actions as well.
Continued TMDL project to support next phases associated with completion of TMDL's for ten lakes in the Carnelian Marine Saint Croix Watershed District (CMSCWD). Ten lakes are; East Boot, Fish, Goose, Hay, Jellum’s, Long, Loon, Louise, Mud and South Twin.
This project targets stabilizing 900+ feet of eroding shoreline in the Cedar Lake Farms Regional Park converting it into a healthy native buffer on Cedar Lake.The project addresses phosphorus loading by reducing erosion from unstable shoreline banks adjacent to Cedar Lake. This will increase infiltration, intercept upland runoff, and stabilize the soil at the water's edge to decrease erosion and the addition of phosphorus into the lake. It is estimated that a shoreline stabilization at Cedar Lake will reduce 12-25 lbs/ year phosphorus depending on the regression rate.
This project is for Cycle 2 of the Intensive Watershed Monitoring (IWM) process for the Lower St. Croix Watershed. Seven stream sites will be monitored by the Isanti Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), Anoka Conservation District, and Chisago SWCD. Sampling will be conducted in 2019 and 2020 and Chemistry and field observation data will be taken.
The Villa Park Wetland Restoration Project proposes sediment removal from 6 contiguous stormwater wetland treatment cells within the Villa Park Wetland system resulting in an additional 118lbs/yr of total phosphorus(TP) removal from water entering Lake McCarrons.
The nine member Counties and Soil and Water Conservation Districts of the Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA) will be able to enhance our effectiveness to provide elevated levels of technical assistance, education and outreach in the areas of urban stormwater, wellhead protection, nutrient management, conservation agronomy, drainage and agricultural best management practices to reduce nonpoint source pollution in the Blue Earth, Le Sueur and Watonwan River Watersheds.
This project represents a one-time opportunity to improve the quality of stormwater runoff from the parking lot and access road at Cleary Lake Regional Park. Cleary Lake is listed as impaired for excessive nutrients and is a focal point for many park activities. Three Rivers Park District and Scott County are partnering to reconstruct the park access road and to mill and overlay or conduct full depth reclamation of the parking lot at the park in 2013. Other partners include the Scott Watershed Management Organization (Scott WMO) and the Scott County Public Works Department.
This project will install new stormwater treatment practices in neighborhoods directly draining to Coon Lake. The objective is to remove phosphorus, which fuels algae growth, before the water is discharged into the lake. Seventeen potential project sites have been identified and ranked and include curb-cut rain gardens, swales, stabilizing stormwater discharge points, and a basin outlet modification.
This project will promote land and water treatment practices, including wetland restoration, riparian vegetation management, geomorphic (stream stabilization and grade control), livestock exclusion, native grasses, and rain gardens. Also included are three specific geomorphic (stream/grade) stabilization projects in the Hidden Hills Park area of Savage, a wetland restoration in Savage, and finishing the Ponds Park Storm Water Reuse Project.
The Contractor will assist in planning and executing the regular meetings of the St. Croix River Basin Team, including providing minutes of the meetings. Assist in the functioning of the priority issue subcommittees. Respond to public notices for re-issuances of NPDES permits, EAWs and other pertinent public notices, and participate in prioritized public meetings with local governmental units and water planning organizations.
The project will include lake monitoring on three (3) lakes found in the Rum River watershed in southeastern Crow Wing County (CWC). The project will be conducted in an effort to gain sufficient data on these data-deficient lake sites. All of the proposed monitoring sites are target sites for 2013-2014. One of the goals of the CWC Local Comprehensive Water Plan (CWP) is to establish a countywide Comprehensive Monitoring Plan (CMP).
Chisago County will coordinate up to three community dialogue meetings to inform its water planning decisions. The goal of the meetings will be to provide safe, productive and effective venues for citizens to become authentically engaged in the water planning process. The outcome of this Civic engagement work with Chisago County and their county water planning process will be a more engaged public in the County Water Planning Process.
This project will support a civic engagement cohort that will be offered in southwest Minnesota to foster partnering and build capacity of local government, organizations, and residents for effective civic engagement in water protection and restoration. This project will also build networks and the skill set of local resource professionals to do effective civic engagement work for water restoration and protection. The cohort will be administered through the Minnesota River Board (MRB), established in 1995 with a goal of focusing water management efforts on the local level.
This project will support the necessary activities for improving the water quality and biological community by reducing nutrients, sediment levels and managing in-stream habitat within the Goose Creek 10-digit HUC Watershed. This restoration and protection plan will identify pollutant load reduction estimates and management strategies that will be used to obtain the TMDL goals outlined in the plan.
This project will complete a comprehensive study, following a rational, step-wise process of data analysis, response modeling and comparison to the water quality standards, followed by impairment diagnosis, modeling of improvement and protection options, and development of a WRAP Report and Implementation Plan for Sunfish lake, Thompson lake, Pickerel lake, and Rogers lake.
This project will complete a Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan for the Lower St. Croix River that provides quantitative pollutant load reduction estimates and a set of pollutant reduction and watershed management strategies to achieve water quality standards for all impairments within the watershed, and that are understood and adoptable by local units of government and other stakeholders.
This project will support the development of whole farm conservation plans for ten (10) agricultural producers within the Sunrise River Watershed. The conservation plans will be used by the farmer and the Chisago SWCD to develop an action plan to address the resource concerns identified as part of the AgEQA program. The overall goal of the program is to prioritize conservation practices that will improve the overall water quality of the Sunrise River.
This project will consist of identifying the candidate causes of biological stress and to develop and implement a public and stakeholder participation process that encourages local ownership of water quality problems and solutions. The Stressor ID process will be done using existing data, identifying data gaps, gathering new data, developing load duration curves, and refinement of the candidate causes. The civic engagement work will include compiling and reviewing existing data on community capacity and assessing that information.
This project will build network and the skill set of local resource professionals to do effective civic engagement work for water restoration and protection in Southeast Minnesota. The cohort will be administered through the Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board (SE MN WRB) which is an area wide Joint Powers Board (JPB) established to help improve and protect the water resources of the area through coordinating local water planning efforts. This JPB has successfully administered water quality grants in the past that have positively impacted the water resources of this region.
This project will complete a pollutant source identification and subwatershed information report and support the development of a Draft Restoration and Protection Plan (RAPP). It will also support the devlopment of a Implementation Plan that will identify target areas for BMP implementation for bacteria reductions.
This project will complete spatial and temporal revisions , recalibration and validation of 7 watershed HSPF models. These fully functioning calibrated validated executable models will simulate hydrology, sediment (sand, silt, and clay), temperature, phosphorus, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, and algae at the 12-digit HUC subbasin scale (or finer).
This project will construct, calibrate, a set of HSPF watershed models covering the entire area of the Lake of the Woods drainage, including the Rainy River watershed. The consultant will produce HSPF models that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs. The consultant will clearly demonstrate that these models generate predicted output timeseries for hydrology which are consistent with available sets of observed data.
The goal of this project is to develop a phosphorus TMDL for the six impaired lakes in the southwest portion of the Rice Creek Watershed District; Island Lake, Little Lake Johanna, Long Lake, East Moore Lake, Pike Lake and Lake Valentine.
This project will provide the MPCA, CCWD, and all other stakeholders the information and tools necessary to improve the water quality within Coon Creek Watershed District. The improvements will take place using targeted activities throughout the watershed to reduce the primary biological and chemical stressors. In turn, the reduction of these stressors will help to reduce overall loadings of sediment, turbidity, total phosphorus, and E. coli bacteria.
The MPCA, in partnership with the Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization, contracted with Wenck Associates, Inc., to develop the Stressor Identification (SID) Report; and develop the necessary models for the Vermillion River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) as part of Phase I. The final Vermillion River Watershed SID report discusses all of the analysis that was done in the watershed to identify the primary stressors causing the fish and macroinvertebrate impairments in the watershed.
TMDL project in the Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District that will develop a watershed based plan and provide strategies for water quality and aquatic ecosystem management, restoration, and protection within Sunrise River Watershed. This project will also aid in understanding the Phosphorus loading to Lake St. Croix.
The VLAWMO watershed covers approximately 25 square miles in the northeast metropolitan area in northern Ramsey County and a small portion of Anoka County, Minnesota. It encompasses the City of North Oaks and portions of the Cities of White Bear Lake, Gem Lake, Vadnais Heights, Lino Lakes, and White Bear Township. This project will gather and organize existing data, support the continuation of modeling and TMDL allocations along with an additional stakeholder meeting. It will also provide the completion of a draft and final TMDL report.
This project will support the design and construction of three rain gardens to intercept and infiltrate stormwater runoff near the Fridley Middle School.
This project will reduce nutrient loadings to Sand Creek from the neighborhoods which are the greatest contributors. Project activities include the installation of a new stormwater pond and a network of 10 strategically-placed curb-cut rain gardens.